


and our little lives are rounded with a sleep

by cirrus (themorninglark)



Series: Sportsfest 2018 [10]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Magical Realism, Sportsfest 2018, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 16:32:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15123446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus
Summary: From the rooftop, Shinsuke surveys the city. It’s just as he heard: Kobe does not sleep. They have not slept a single wink since the earthquake.Kita at the very heart of Kobe, right before the city bows at his feet.





	and our little lives are rounded with a sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sportsfest 2018 Bonus Round 1: Time and Place | [originally posted here](https://sportsfest.dreamwidth.org/7464.html?thread=664360#cmt664360)

At the very heart of Kobe, there’s a shrine only Shinsuke can see.

It’s full tonight. Of course it would be full, tonight of all nights, when he’s finally decided to come face the last of his trials. It would be here in the capital of Hyogo, right by the port where the rest of the world is waiting. Beneath the stones that line the shore, the beer-soaked grubby pavement that leads to the bar, something is straining to break free.

From the rooftop, Shinsuke surveys the city. It’s just as he heard: Kobe does not sleep. They have not slept a single wink since the earthquake. Not the big one, but the quiet one that happened in the aftershocks, the one that swallowed dreams and memories and buried them in the broken concrete that littered every neighbourhood. The tide has not washed all things away. These still remain. When he says the _heart of Kobe_ , he means it quite literally; the pulsing is unbearable and the city’s heartbeat is roaring and it will be swept away if he does not do _something_ —

Shinsuke takes a deep breath, touches the intricate tattoo on the back of his hand. A mosaic of entwined foxes wind their way up his arm, a sleeve that warns off everyone who thinks he’s small and makes an easy target. He can’t see them, but he knows the rest of the boys are nearby. Atsumu, probably skulking round the other side of the rooftop. Osamu, lurking in shadows. Suna under the street lamp opposite the bar. A fight’s breaking out inside now. Shinsuke can hear shouting, something hard shattering on the floor.

He kneels, claps his hands together and presses them to the roof of the building.

For a second, the sea stills. For a second, the glass flying out the bar’s front door hangs, suspended in the air.

The shards fall to the ground one by one. They clatter at Suna’s feet as he finally peels himself away from the street lamp, walks out into the light and looks up at Shinsuke. “Impressive,” he says.

The waves crash upon the docks. Shinsuke keeps his hands where they are.

He watches as all his tattoos fade away, melt into the cracks of the city, those they can see and those they can’t. A new tattoo replaces them: just one fox, now, a lone animal with silver-tipped ears and tail, running ghostlike across his clean, unmarked skin to perch on his shoulder.

Shinsuke stands up, breathes out. At his feet, Kobe sleeps at last.

Atsumu saunters up to him, hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. “So have you conquered the city, Kita-san?”

“Or freed it?” Osamu murmurs, materialising like a phantom out of moonlight and thin air.

Shinsuke smiles. As he opens his mouth, the fox tattoo leaps into it and eats his answer whole, sinew and all.


End file.
